OF CROPS USUALLY CULTIVATED. 27.5 



no method can be devised, by which a greater crop could 

 be procured. 



7. Turnips. Drilled turnips is one of the great boasts 

 of Scottish agriculture, and though the idea of drilling them 

 was originally taken from the celebrated Tull, yet the pre- 

 cise mode of conducting this operation, now universal in 

 this country, certainly originated in North Britain. Other 

 attempts of a similar nature may have been previously 

 made, both in England and Scotland, but Mr Dawson of 

 Frogden is the individual, who first brought that practice 

 to its present state of excellence. 



The superior importance of this branch of husbandry, as 

 practised in Scotland, cannot be questioned. It has given 

 to light soils a value, which it would have been vain to have 

 expected from any other leguminous crop yet known in 

 this country. Indeed, nothing has so much contributed 

 to the improvement of agriculture, as this valuable root. 

 Though its immediate beneficial effects are sufficiently ob- 

 vious, there are others perhaps of still higher importance, 

 which are not so fully appreciated. It would be easy to 

 trace its consequences through the arable and grazing de- 

 partments of husbandry, to prove that, for both the quan- 

 tity and quality of our grain, and butcher-meat, we are 

 greatly indebted to turnips. Perhaps we should be war- 

 ranted in proceeding farther, and in attributing, in a con- 

 siderable degree, to the general cultivation of drilled tur- 

 nips, the enlargement of the size of farms, and the general 

 opulence and intelligence of the tenantry, who occupy any 

 considerable extent of light dry soils. It is at least certain, 

 that, without this crop, all the different branches of hus- 

 bandry cannot be combined, as they often now are, under 

 the -direction of one farmer; the breeding, rearing, and 

 fattening of sheep and cattle, with the most correct cultiva- 



